Everybody is talking and trying to do ‘data journalism’ and the first ever International Data Journalism Awards have been established to recognise the huge effort that people are making in this field.  It’s a great opportunity to showcase your work.  Backed by Google, the prizes are generous at €45,000 (over $55,000) to six winners and the process is being managed by Global Editors

The main objectives are to a) Contribute to setting high standards and highlighting the best practices in data journalism and b) Demonstrate the value of data journalism among editors and media executives.

There are three categories :-

1. Data-driven investigative journalism
2. Data visualisation & storytelling
3. Data-driven applications

The competition is open to media companies, non-profit organisations, freelancers and individuals. Applicants are welcome to submit their best data journalism projects before 10 April 2012 at http://datajournalismawards.org/ submit-your-work/.

To find out more about the competition and how to apply check out  datajournalismawards.org.  If you have any questions about the competition get in touch with the lovely Liliana Bounegru, DJA Coordinator (bounegru [at] ejc [dot] net). Liliana works at the European Journalism Centre